Forbidden Ally
by Star Vortex
Summary: When traveling, the pack must travel through a reeking smell that completely covers a city in their quest to Cheza. When they encounter a teenage girl that is neither human or wolf, they must overcome the deep hatred that is buried in them to succeed.TsXO
1. Stench

"Too close."

The white-haired man waved at the seemingly twelve-year old boy behind him, gesturing for more space between them than the five-foot radius. The boy, with a confused look that was tinged with a tiny fracture of hurt, slowed down temporarily until the space between them had doubled. The man rolled his eyes as he heard the stomach growl of the brown-haired youth in a yellow hoodie beside him. The child looked at the older boy and instinctively moved into friendlier terrain. He tentatively came within five feet of the soft-featured teenager, and then relaxed as no hostility was shown.

"Hey Hige, how much farther?" The child asked of the boy in the yellow hoodie.

"I can smell open air up ahead, Toboe. Kiba'll be waiting for us." Hige replied.

"We'll need to hurry if we want to catch the moon while it's up." said the white-haired man.

As if to emphasize the point, the man sped up his walk until it was a steady lope. Toboe and Hige exchanged exasperated glances, then sped up their paces as well to catch up to their black-clad elder.

* * *

"I'm hungry."

"The moon should sustain you for some of the day, Hige."

"I only got in a couple of minutes, Kiba; you were the one with the full time."

"You didn't get here soon enough." Said the white-haired man.

"Please, Tsume, not that speech again." Grumbled Hige.

"You and the runt got here an hour before the moon went down. Don't blame me if you're tired or hungry."

"But moonlight isn't food; it just energizes you."

The leather-clothed Tsume huffed and rolled his eyes at no one in particular. Toboe sat down and leaned his head back until it touched the wall.

"I agree with Hige."

A stomach growled. Toboe, Hige, and a black-haired boy in jeans, a white shirt and jacket looked at Tsume.

"That one was you." Hige teased.

Tsume pretended not to hear. Another stomach growled. Hige smiled sheepishly.

"That one was you." Toboe said.

Another hungry sound rumbled in their non-human ears. The three looked up at the boy in the jeans and white shirt.

"Kiba?" Hige asked. "You're hungry too?"

The teenager pointedly looked away. Tsume turned his head to hide a smirk.

"If we're all really as hungry as this," Tsume said, "then eventually we can just eat ourselves. We'll start with Porky, then the runt—"

"Hey, why'd you leave Kiba out?" Hige whined.

Tsume looked up at the alpha's back.

"Because Kiba's inedible." He replied.

There was a menace in Tsume's voice, and Kiba noticed. Their battle was still not over. Toboe looked back and forth between them anxiously. Tsume closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall, hearing Toboe let out a sigh of relief. Kiba gazed up at the grey sky, misty with the remnants of the night and heralding the coming dawn. Kiba turned back to his canine companions.

"Come on. We should get going."

Kiba jumped off of the two-story building. To an unconditioned eye, the jump should have killed him, but he landed lightly and easily into the alleyway below. The three others followed him. They took off together; eight feet running on the paved road, sixteen paws pounding invisibly. Tsume, Hige, and Toboe had no idea where they were headed; only that Kiba knew the way.

* * *

"Wait!"

Tsume, Toboe and Kiba skidded to a halt as Hige yelled. When they turned back, he was covering his nose with his yellow sleeve, and coughing. Toboe retraced a few steps until he was beside the soft-featured boy. Hige was hacking, and his throat was convulsing, as if he was trying to get rid of a tough piece of rabbit.

"I can't go any further!" Hige choked. "What a stench! Come on, you guys must be able to smell that!"  
The three wolves looked at each other, and then Kiba raised his head, taking a sniff. He immediately gagged and choked, his hand automatically going to his throat. The smell was terrible! It had no distinction; it didn't smell like rot or dung or trash or anything in particular. This scent was sweet, too sweet. Sickly sweet.  
Tsume took a whiff of the air as well, and flinched. To the other three's surprise, that was all he did. Hige looked at him jealously.

"How can you stand the smell?" Hige asked, his voice muffled by his arm.

"We got all types of thieves in Freeze City." Tsume answered. "Once, this other wolf joined my gang. He carried the same scent. I couldn't let anyone get suspicious, so I got over it. But the first few weeks were torture worse than Jagaura's infiltration chambers. I was never able to ask his where he came from, so I have no idea about where he might have picked up something this foul-smelling. But his scent was faint, so I guess that the actual source is somewhere nearby."

"Well, either you're going to figure this out by yourself, or us three tender-noses will have to get nose plugs. I would never be able to survive in that reek." Hige said.

"You're going to have to get used to it. The smell covers the other half of the city, and we're going to have to go right through it to get to the other side, and closer to Cheza." Kiba said.

"Can't we go around?" Hige pleaded.

"No."

Kiba turned, took a deep breath, and walked further into the choking smell. Tsume followed closely behind. Toboe and Hige, with a terrified exchange of glances, followed as well.


	2. Newcomer

"Wow! It's not as hard as I thought it would be if I breathe through my mouth instead of my nose!" Hige commented. "But I can still smell it."

"Keep breathing through your mouth and eventually you won't take notice of it anymore." Tsume advised.

The main town seemed to be in the thickest part of the scent. They could smell the reek so well that Hige wondered how the humans could be ignorant of its existence. He saw a flash of white from the corner of his eye. He looked, but it was just a cat. The feline jumped down from a rafter, and padded down an alleyway. Hige felt suspicious for some reason, but forced himself to take no notice of it. Toboe turned to him.

"Hige, will you go get us some food? The other two might not be, but I'm starved."

Hige nodded, both as an answer and as an agreement. He veered from the middle of the street to a hot dog stand. Hige bent and acted as if he was just sniffing the man's sales. He stood up and walked back to the group and handed Toboe one of the hot dogs he had swiped, eating the other one himself. Tsume glanced back, but didn't stop or change stride. Hige was glad that Tsume looked like he did. To humans, he was quiet, confident, and looked _dangerous_. That meant that they had a clear girth and an easy path. Toboe and Hige chomped down hungrily on their hot dogs. All too soon, they were gone. Hige sadly tucked his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.

* * *

Hige stopped short. Toboe turned to look at his companion, who was sniffing the air.

"What is it?" Toboe inquired.

Hige sniffed once more, and his facial expression changed to one of pure wonder and excitement.

"A meat store!" Hige said joyfully.

Even Kiba and Tsume turned at the mention of such an artifact. Toboe's eyes widened.

"Really? A meat store?!" Toboe barked.

Hige nodded. Toboe turned to Kiba.

"Kiba, can we go? _Pretty please_?" Toboe whined.

Kiba looked at Tsume, who smirked and closed his eyes, stuffing his hands into the traditional places in his pockets. Kiba sighed, and nodded to the pup. Hige and Toboe practically leapt for joy, and took off. Kiba and Tsume exchanged amused and knowing glances, and shot after their two companions.

* * *

Hige stopped again. Toboe crashed into his back. The older wolf raised his nose into the air and sniffed.

"What is it now?" Toboe asked.

"The… the smell's gone!" Hige said.

"Really?" Toboe said, sniffing the air.

"Well, not completely, but it's much more bearable now."

"You're right!" Toboe said. The pup went to a different topic. "How close are we to the meat store?"

Tsume and Kiba rolled their eyes. The brown pup went through conversation topics like summer fur. Hige sped up again, and his three friends sped up as well. As they ran, each had different thoughts running through their minds.

Hige was happy that he would get to eat.

Toboe was happy that Hige was happy.

Kiba was annoyed about getting thrown off course.

And Tsume… well, Tsume was thinking, _'how did I get myself dragged into this?'

* * *

_

The theft process was quick, silent, efficient, simple, and successful. Hige walked through a back door to where they kept all of their stuff in big iced-down warehouses, got them all a good load, and came back. He was grinning like there was no tomorrow.

They feasted in an alleyway. Even when they all had eaten their fill, there was some left over. And something so impossible, so freakish, so unthinkable, had occurred. Hige was full. No one knew whether it was a miracle or a disaster, but Hige could never have been happier.

* * *

Feet pattered down the alleyway. A figure raced through the maze, chased by another figure. The first figure was a young boy, about eleven or twelve. He had a grimy yellow shirt, jeans, and a brown jacket that flapped out behind him as he ran. His sandy blond hair steamed out behind him as he pelted forward. The boy's pursuer was a guard, visor down, gun in hand.

The boy looked in front of him and skidded to a halt. A dead end. Great. Now that guard would probably zap him with some sort of laser or fancy thingymajig. The boy backed up against the wall, his eyes reflecting his fear. His brain took note of the meat scraps lying around on the ground, but he was too scared to notice. The guard got closer and raised his whatever-it-was. Then just as the guard was about to fire something moved in front of the boy. He was suddenly looking at yellow and brown. He realized that two other people had blocked the guard's path. There was another boy in strange school clothes that looked his age, and then there was a much older boy that had curly and messy brown hair piled haphazardly onto his head. He peeked between them, and saw that the guard was looking at them in fear. The boy would have never thought a guard capable of fear. But the emotion that twisted his features was unmistakable. The guard turned to run, but two other strangers appeared. The boy blinked. _What the— did those guys just drop out of the sky?!_

The two others were a boy in a white shirt, black jacket and jeans with black hair that looked seventeen, and the other with a tight black leather jacket, slim black leather pants, black leather boots, and white hair. But the expression that was on the white-haired man's face made the boy know this he was _not_ someone to get angry.

The guard looked at the four boys wildly. The guard for some reason saw something terrifying about the strangers, even though he was stronger and had a weapon.

The boy in the white shirt turned and gave the guard a route of escape, which he took. The guard ran down the alleys, dropping his weapon in his haste to get away. The boy stared up at the four strangers in awe. Who were they?

The boy that looked his age turned around with a friendly smile on his face.

"Hi!" the boy said. "I'm Toboe. Who're you?"

"K-K-Ksunari." The boy stammered. The older boy in the yellow hoodie turned and grinned at him.

Beyond them, Ksunari saw the white-haired man pick up what the soldier had dropped. The man glanced at it, and then cast it aside angrily.

"Darcia's seal!" the man hissed under his breath.

The boy in jeans looked at the white-haired man.

"If Darcia's men are here, then we will have to be extra careful." The teenager said.

"As if I don't know." The white-haired man grumbled, kicking a stray brick.

The boy in the hoodie looked at the meat scraps on the ground, bent down, and started eating one raw. Ksunari stared. How could someone stomach something like that? The boy called Toboe stared at the other boy, too. At first, Ksunari thought it was because he was disgusted, but it wasn't.

"Hige? How can you be _hungry_?!" The white-haired man said. "_You just finished five pounds of deer meat!_"

"Hey, take it easy, Tsume!" The boy named Hige said. "All the excitement just made me a little hungry, that's all."

The black-clad Tsume turned away, grumbling something that sounded like, "Uh-huh, sure."

Hige somehow heard this remark, but Toboe patted his sleeve, and Hige turned away angrily.

"Who are you?" Ksunari asked, his voice steadier that it had been in years.


End file.
